A woman who escaped the Russian invasion of Ukraine with her family and later stabbed her eight-year-old daughter more than 70 times in an alleged attempt to kill her was put on trial on Monday.
The woman, who cannot be identified to protect the identity of her now 11-year-old daughter, has pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of the child at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Limerick, reports The Mirror.
While being arraigned and entering her not guilty plea, the accused told the court: “I was out of my mind at that time”, reports The Mirror.
The court heard that during the alleged assault, which took place at a house in Co Clare on September 27, 2022, the woman used both a knife and a phone charging cable as a ligature.
Outlining the prosecution case, senior counsel Lorcan Connolly told the jury that gardaí responded to an alert at the property at approximately 7.40am on the morning of the incident, reports The Mirror.
Gardaí forced entry into a locked room where they found the accused in a bathroom holding the child, who had “cuts all over her body”.
Mr Connolly said the girl was bleeding heavily and had suffered more than 70 stab wounds, including injuries to her neck and torso, and he added that a phone charging cable was found tangled in her hair, reports The Mirror.
The child was taken by ambulance to University Hospital Limerick before being transferred to Crumlin Children’s Hospital in Dublin, where she was treated for life-threatening injuries and survived.
Mr Connolly told the court that when gardaí entered the room, the accused appeared disoriented and was not very responsive. He said several packets of prescription medication were also discovered at the scene, reports The Mirror.
The woman was brought to University Hospital Limerick for treatment after a suspected drug overdose and was later transferred to a psychiatric facility.
Mr Connolly said the jury would hear evidence from Garda interviews in which the accused allegedly stated that she planned to kill her daughter and then take her own life, reports The Mirror.
The prosecution told jurors they would need to decide, based on the evidence, whether the accused fully understood her actions or whether she had been “labouring under a mental disorder” and therefore “lacked the necessary intent”.
Mr Connolly also said the court would hear DVD-recorded interviews between the child and specially trained Garda interviewers, in which the girl describes her interactions with her mother in the period leading up to the alleged attack, reports The Mirror.
The accused is represented by two barristers, including senior counsel Mark Nicholas and Antoinette Simon BL, instructed by Kieran O’Brien Solicitors.
For the prosecution, Mr Connolly is assisted by Rebecca Smart BL and is instructed by the Office of the State Solicitor, reports The Mirror.
A jury made up of seven men and five women was sworn in before trial judge Kerida Naidoo.
The trial is continuing today, reports The Mirror.
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